The 49ers’ defense drives them to the top: Are they No. 1?

During a good pizza dinner right around the corner from Ford’s Theater, Cam Inman and I realized the second half of the 49ers’ schedule basically comes in two stylistic parts:

Five games against the NFC West (home/away vs. St. Louis, home/away vs. Arizona, at Seattle) that the 49ers will be heavily favored to win;

And three toughies, starting Sunday at home against the NY Giants, a home game against Pittsburgh and the Thanksgiving game at Baltimore.

The 49ers have a defense that will get them wins in almost every game they’re supposed to–I’m conservatively putting them down for 4-1 in the remaining NFC West games, and 5-0 is quite possible.

There still are some lingering offensive issues, so let’s say 1-2 in the remaining toughies, though I think 2-1 (including a victory over the Giants at Candlestick) is also very, very possible.

Add that up, and it’s 12-4. Conservatively.

I’ve done the math with other formulas, and it always comes out: 12-4 at worst, with 13-3 a very real possibility.

Sunday’s game will be even more enormous because it’ll give the winner a huge leg up on the race for the No. 2 seed, assuming Green Bay will take the top slot in the NFC.

—–the column (UNEDITED VERSION)/

LANDOVER, Md.—From the first tackle they made to the last fumbles they forced, and every percussive moment in between, the 49ers defenders owned this game.

They knew it, the Redskins endured it, the 49ers offensive players saluted it, and the rest of the NFL is beginning to understand it.

Something is happening: The 49ers defense is a gathering danger for every other team in the league.

“This is a great defense,” defensive lineman Ricky Jean Francois said calmly but proudly after the 49ers’ 19-11 victory over Washington at FedEx Field.

“Once you take away some of the breakdowns here and there, we can be probably be one of the best defenses you’ve ever seen.”

At 7-1, having won six in a row and three or four just like Sunday–almost solely on defensive superiority alone– the 49ers aren’t already there?

“Not yet; too many breakdowns, too many mistakes,” Francois said. “But we can get there.”

Mostly, Francois was bothered by Washington’s only scoring drives—one at the end of the first half that resulted in a field goal; the other in the last minutes of the game that gave the Redskins their only touchdown.

Otherwise, the 49ers’ defense swarmed the Redskins, keeping them pinned in their own territory, plucking the ball away and setting the 49ers’ offense up for easy scores.

Granted, this came against a woeful and wounded Washington offense, quarterbacked by the awful John Beck.

But that’s a partial definition of an elite defense: You win any time you line up against a weak offense, guaranteed.

On days like these, it almost doesn’t matter what the 49ers offense does, and the 49ers offense wasn’t close to spectacular on Sunday.

“Our defense, pretty much that’s our cornerstone right now,” receiver Braylon Edwards said appreciatively. “We’re banking on the defense and we’re getting better as an offense.”

Simply, this is an elite NFL defense, definitely one of the two or three best in the NFC and possibly one of the three or four best in the entire league.

With a strong chance to blast itself to the No. 1 slot sooner rather than later.

“They’re playing unselfish football,” coach Jim Harbaugh said of his defense. “Just keeps showing up time and time again. Consummate team guys the way they play.

“They’re not looking for the statistics and the tackles, the interceptions, the sacks… They understand them, they know about them, they know that helps us win. But they’re doing the unselfish things that… when a tackle’s made, it’s a defensive tackle. It’s a team tackle.

“That bodes really well for us.”

One sign of that: The most vociferous praise for the 49ers defense on Sunday came from… the 49ers offense.

While the defensive players mainly talked about unselfish play and the need for ever more improvement, the offensive players smiled and spoke in awed tones.

“They’re flying around, getting interceptions, they’re tackling,” tight end Vernon Davis said of the defense. “They’re just everywhere on the field.

“They’re a tremendous gift to the team. Without those guys, we probably wouldn’t be in the situation we are in today.”

Even when the 49ers offense stalled in the early going Sunday, there was no chance the 49ers could lose. Not with Patrick Willis forcing two fumbles, Justin Smith batting passes and Dashon Goldson going at total engine power.

No chance to lose.

That’s among the greatest compliments you can make about an NFL team, traveling to hostile territory, three time zones from home.

That’s how you get to 7-1, that’s how you rise to the top of the NFL standings, and that’s how you show that you belong in any playoff conversation… and how you show that you might go very deep in the playoffs.

The 49ers are a Baltimore-level defense right now. They’re Pittsburgh-level. There’s not an offense in the NFC that should want to play them in the playoffs.

And the most dangerous thing about the 49ers defense is that it might only be getting better, all pointing to January.